wino

Generally taken to be another name for a homelessalcoholic. Some might say that the name is more specific than that. It implies someone who drinks cheap fortifiedwine such as Mad Dog 20/20, wears gloves with the fingers snipped off and huddles around fires started in trash cans on skid rows all over America. If one want's to be a hopeless romantic, one could assume that a wino was privy to some kind of special wisdom imparted by living so close to the edge of civilization and spending so much time in a mentally disorganized state, but that is probably not true.

I met him a few times, and the sense of him I got from his music was only deepened in person. Strong, tough, an old soul, he has a well of wisdom I am in awe of. A large, long-haired, muscular, scarred, tattooed man, he looks like a Hell's Angel but has the spirit of an artist. An American guitarist in the classic mold, like Blues musicians of old.